For many years it has been a desire in the packaging industry while packing or handling articles such as cans, bottles or any other type of cylindrical containers or those that have a substantially circular cross section, to automatically arrange discrete articles into a tandem or single row formation, such as a rectilinear formation. More specifically, it is desirable to have a conveying means for discrete articles that will move those articles uninterruptedly in a group and to rearrange that group into a single row formation without any stops occuring and to have those discrete articles continuously move in an orderly and definite manner.
In the past, this has involved the use of a combining area where one or more sidewalls would be angled inwardly toward the path of travel so as to move the articles transversely as they are advanced. As the width of the conveyor system converged toward the discharge end it was the desire that one article at a time would pass out of the discharge end.
A major problem in effecting this combining or converging process was that jams of the conveyed articles would occur. Of course, until such jams could be effectively removed, manually or otherwise, effective conveying of the articles would be terminated.
A number of proposals for solving these jamming or stoppage problems have been proposed including the placement or arranging of the center points or axes of the converging articles so that they are at the corners of an equilaterial triangle. Reference in this regard can be made to Carter U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,151 and German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,505,333.
In Babunovic, U.S. Pat. No. 3,610,396 and the above Offenlegungsschrift also relate to container combiners which progressively move containers transversly until they form into a single row with the single row exit conveyor being substantially transversely offset from the initial infeed conveyor.
In a similar manner, Englander et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,580 also moves containers transversely across a conveyor in order to combine the containers together into a single file. The transverse movement, however, is relatively slow and not conducive to high speed conveyor transportation.
It has also been suggested that various zig-zag arrangements be employed as in Carter U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,151 and Maters U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,919.
In Carter a plurality of endless conveyor belts placed on various sides of one another are used to convey articles through a zig-zag course defined between two sidewalls which have a dissimilar shape.
In Maters a relatively wide conveyor belt is used and containers which are supplied in a random fashion are first directed at a relatively large inward projection which forces the containers toward a flat opposite wall. That projection has a height or extends into the path of the articles a distance approximately equal to three times the diameter of those articles. Thereafter, the path continues to narrow notwithstanding the zig-zag course with the next projection extending more than halfway across the width of the conveyor belt and into the flow of the articles from the opposite side with a width of that projection being approximately equal to four times the diameter of the articles. This moves the article back toward the side containing the first projection. The articles then flow transversely back across the conveyor in a double row configuration and finally pass into a confined wall area where their flow is arranged in a single file fashion. In this latter form, the single row occupies a position on one side of the conveyor leaving the remaining portions of the conveyor virtually unused.